Battle of Eastbourne

The Battle of Eastbourne was a naval battle fought off the coast of Sussex in early 1338 during the Hundred Years' War. The English fleet under Admiral Robin destroyed a smaller French fleet in the English Channel in the first violent incident between England and France during the war.

Background
In November 1337, following King Philip IV of France's confiscation of the duchy of Aquitaine from England, King Edward III of England sent a declaration of war to Philip and immediately began preparations for a campaign to claim the French throne. However, in the winter of 1337, Edward was informed that the Scots - despite their defeat at the 1333 Battle of Halidon Hill - were gathering their forces in preparation for another invasion of England. King Edward marched north with his army, gathering forces as he went, and, in the meantime, he decided to have England's navy acquire naval superiority in the English Channel in preparation for a future invasion of France.

Battle
Admiral Robin, who was in command of the English fleet off Southampton, had merged with another English fleet off Kent in late 1337 to prepare for the invasion of France. Upon hearing of King Edward's change of plans, Robin was dispatched to clear the Channel of French fleets.

Admiral Guillaume's fleet was sighted dangerously close to the English shore at Sussex, so the combined English fleet of 12 ships and 651 men moved in to attack the smaller French fleet of 6 ships and 326 men. The ensuing battle saw the numerically-superior English fleet easily defeat the smaller French fleet. The English sunk one French ship and captured and scuttled the remaining five, destroying Guillaume's fleet. As a result of the battle, Franco-English relations deteriorated to abysmal, preventing the dynastic dispute between the Plantagenets and Valois from being settled in any other way but war.